12+ volt ACC wire

If you don't find one, run a wire tucked under the headliner above the windshield and down the A-pillar to the fuse box.

I ran a thick cat 5 cable along a similar route for my mirror mounted scangauge.

 

It's snap in, but there's also a zip tie to hold the A-pillar from flying off freely when the airbag is triggered, so some care needs to be taken around that airbag.

I used a fuse for seat heaters, which I don't have, for my +12v source in Ready Mode.

 

No. Use one of these Add a Circuit fuse taps:

 

There's a legend on the back of the fuse box cover.

 

Yeah, cover won't fit. I keep mine in the glove box for reference.

 

Are we talking about the fuse box in the cab or in the engine compartment.

The engine compartment gets very very wet at times....

 

The fuse tap pictured will fit under the engine fuse box cover. But, yes, we are talking about the one under the dashboard.

 

I need 10-15 amps of 12v under the dash for ham radio gear- is this the way to do it? And what is a source for the little taps please.

 

Sourcing for the fuse taps are practically at any auto parts store. The type of tap you want depends on the size of the fuse used for the circuit (and the type of fuse, i.e. ATM or ATC or another). For your ham radio gear, it's also suggested that you place the same size / type of fuse on the negative conductor as well.

I'm getting ready to put an dual-band (VHF / UHF) rig in my new 2016 Prius 4. The interior is vastly different from my 2005 Prius (which I still have, despite 260K miles), so I'm trying to find out where to put the radio, where to place the radio head-unit and a convenient spot for the speakers. I've made some progress at dismantling the dash, but keep running into "SRS Airbag" imprints on some of the covers, which I'm researching prior to trying to remove.

 

BigRed, your profile says you have a Gen 2—a little bit OT since this thread started about Gen 4, but the nice thing about Gens 1, 2, and 3 is that the battery's in the cabin, which gives you a really convenient way to run your heavier, added loads right from there, protected from the elements and with room to make your own fuse arrangements and not fuss with tapping off existing fuses in tiny cramped boxes....



For power that's only on when the car is, I used a handy module called VCM-06, which doesn't need me to go tap any switch-controlled circuit, it can just recognize the voltage difference when the car's READY and when it isn't, and has a couple other nice features. You can set a time delay up to an hour or so that it stays on after you turn the car off, but it also watches your battery voltage and will turn off earlier if it's getting too low. It can switch up to 15 amps on its own (with self-resetting overcurrent protection built in, so if 15 A isn't too much for anything you're adding, you don't strictly need a fuse). If you need to run things heavier than 15 A, you can just have the VCM-06 control a relay.

In a way, the convenience of doing all this back in the trunk all protected from the elements makes me sad that Gen 4 put the battery back up front where everybody else wants it.

-Chap

 

For us ham radio guys it really sucks that Gen4 does not have the battery in the cabin anymore.
73 de S56OA

 

Yeah. Gotta push through the fire-wall. I think I have a route planned. If I can get it to work, I'll post some photos.

 

How do you plan to get through the firewall?